March Call

28 February 2009

Saturday 28 February 2009 Recoaro Terme celebrates the March Call: an unique event of its kind for originality and evocativeness. This grand festival in the Veneto tradition sees a procession of more than 1000 of the inhabitants of this spa town dressed in costumes representing figures of a bygone age: woodsmen, farmers, craftsmen, bakers, carpenters, millers and so forth, who descend from the valleys and villages banging pans and ringing bells. It is a symbolic representation of the end of winter, the beginning of spring and a renewal of life in all its aspects: the locals no longer need to stay in their houses escaping the winters cold, and are free to leave and roam around, celebrating this fact.

On reaching the centre of the town the procession continues by carts which also display the local specialities and offering wine, gnocchi and polenta to the crowd.